The purpose of this topic is for interested people to post the following (not all will be applicable to everyone): - the worst short term trade you ever made - the best short term trade you ever made - the worst long term investment you ever made - the best long term investment you ever made Now don't just list a stock, buy price, and sell price. Say why you bought what you did and when, what was your thinking process, why do you think the trade/investment failed or succeeded, and what did you learn. The goal of the topic is to explore thought processes in the hope of helping others avoid mistakes and achieve success. I would think everyone here could give examples of at least 2 of the above (i.e. long term investment success/failure) since nobody has 100% success either trading or investing. I need to have time to research my choices to find the best of the best and worst of the worst. Might be Monday before I have something as I work tomorrow and we're hosting Easter and have to get the house ready, etc.
Had some time so here is the worst of my worst trade: purchasing 30 shares of EXPR during the big GME hype. The news was saying that EXPR and others were the next to be short squeezed by the reddit crowd. Bought 10 shares on 1/27 at $12 a shares and later that morning bought 20 more shares at $13.86. Sold the next day after the price cratered at $5.87 a share, which was a 55% loss on average. Just checked and it never has come back up anywhere near where I bought it. Nothing else this year came remotely close to that % of loss. Worst of the worst long term investment? Probably ARKK although if NVAX (still own) doesn't get their vaccine out the door ARKK won't be the worst. I bought ARKK because it was doing well for so long and I didn't see coming the drop in tech stocks (forgivable) nor did I research what holdings ARKK actually owned (unforgivable). I went with the hype. I bought 14 shares at $151.64 on 2/19 and per my rules for selling when losses reach x sold it on the 23rd for $134.07, a loss of 11.59%. As a side note ARKK is down to $120 so it's good that I got out of it when I did. Thinking of getting back to it with a small position now that the price has dropped further.
There are so many I cant remember, but the best must have been puts on Citibank just as the financial crisis of 2008 was kicking in. Worst trade.... I cant even begin, there have been so many when I was actively trading. You tend to forget them because its all one big blur.
Here goes best of the best. Of the trades that I initiated (my financial advisor had started me with some good ones), my best have been: SDIV - realized 18.94%: bought solely because of high monthly dividend. Gave it up because of the high risk as most of the dividends are paid via debt and that probably is not sustainable. CSSEP - up 17.37%: bought 12/3 mostly, solely due to their attractive monthly dividend when I was myopically focused on dividends. KMI - up 18.17% (initial buys up 21%-22%): bought continuously since 12/23. Figured energy stocks would do well as the economy continued to reopen, people travel more, etc. KLIC - up 15%: bought continuously since 3/8. KLIC makes the machinery to produce semiconductors and I thought this was an industry to invest in given the semiconductor shortage. After all machines will need to be replaced and maintained. https://www.investorsobserver.com/symbols/klichttps://www.investorsobserver.com/symbols/klic indicated great promise for KLIC. ENB - up 12%: stable and increasing dividend, sound fundamentals, what more is there to say? See https://www.investorsobserver.com/symbols/enb
KLIC went up to 25% almost, I bought a few more, and then I sold to lock gains following a small dip. I didn't think the price would go up much anymore but boy was I wrong. Analyst targets were raised, I jumped back in with a much larger position than before, and have gained another 7.6%. Many semiconductor stocks are hot right now and KLIC seems especially so. KLIC, so far, is definitely deserving to be in the best of the best.
